Tag Archives: Drug dealers

Tennessee Supreme Court to decide if Big Pharma can be sued as drug dealers


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Drug makers are pushing the Tennessee Supreme Court to block a move by state prosecutors to hold Big Pharma financially accountable for the opioid epidemic, Knox News has learned.

Tennessee’s high court has now agreed to consider whether the state’s district attorneys general can sue opioid makers Endo Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceuticals using a law targeting drug dealers, according to an order made public Tuesday.

The high court is also allowing a coalition of corporate and insurance attorneys representing big business — the International Association of Defense Counsel — to weigh in, the order shows.

The court’s decision to take up the appeal comes in a lawsuit filed in Campbell County — one of the hardest hit in the opioid epidemic — against the opioid makers by 8th….

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Crime drops around the world as COVID-19 keeps people inside

CHICAGO (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too.

In Chicago, one of America’s most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42% in the weeks since the city shut down, compared with the same period last year. Part of that decrease, some criminal lawyers say, is that drug dealers have no choice but to wait out the economic slump.

“The feedback I’m getting is that they aren’t able to move, to sell anything anywhere,” said Joseph Lopez, a criminal lawyer in Chicago who represents reputed drug dealers.

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The Revelations of Meek Mill’s Legal Limbo

Free Meek, the Amazon docuseries about the rapper’s 12-year criminal-justice saga, is an impressive but revealing production that joins other high-profile efforts to address institutional reform.

Midway through Episode 3 of Amazon’s new documentary Free Meek, the rapper and entertainment-industry mogul Jay-Z appears on-screen to offer a de facto thesis statement for the five-installment series. He ties the experience of the Philadelphia musician to those of the 4.5 million people whose stories of protracted injustice are less readily heard by wide audiences. “I really believe a lot of people don’t really understand what’s going on, or don’t believe it until they really see it,” Jay-Z, who is also one of the show’s executive producers, says. “Meek is not the only one. You tell people these stories—you can’t believe it, until you hear it from a source and [then] it’s like, this is not fantasy. This is fact. These are just things that are so far that I have to say something.”

Free Meek, which premieres today, follows the ongoing criminal-justice saga of Meek Mill, the rapper born Robert Rihmeek Williams. As its title suggests, the series doesn’t purport to take an ostensibly impartial view of Meek’s original case. It’s more interested in tying the story of the artist’s 12-year legal limbo to that experienced by black people around the country, especially in low-income neighborhoods. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label, to which Meek is signed, co-produced the series with The Intellectual Property Corporation, and the show’s existence sheds light on the sometimes complicated high-profile efforts to address criminal-justice reform.

The documentary begins by establishing vignettes of Meek’s early life in Philadelphia, where his mother raised him after his “drug-dealer robber” father, as Meek calls him, was killed when Meek was 5—and where he got his start as a young battle rapper. These are some of the show’s most wrenching scenes. Meek speaks matter-of-factly about his life; of his chosen name, for example, he says, “Robert sound like a white guy’s name; Rihmeek sounded more ghetto to me.” But even the lighter moments of this introduction, such as when his aunt recalls the first time she encountered the 11-year-old Meek rapping, carry an ominous tone. The music is sinister, the lighting sometimes quite dark.

Full Read – https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/08/free-meek-jay-z-and-trickiness-celebrity-activism/595768/

Ohio attorney general sues 5 pharmaceutical companies over opioid epidemic


The Ohio attorney general has filed a lawsuit against five leading prescription opioid manufacturers, alleging that the companies intentionally misled patients regarding the risks and benefits of opioid use with fraudulent marketing.

Attorney General Mike DeWine accused the companies of leading patients to believe that opioids were not addictive, which the lawsuit says fueled the current opioid epidemic in Ohio.

“We believe the evidence will also show that these companies got thousands and thousands of Ohioans — our friends, our family members, our co-workers, our kids — addicted to opioid pain medications, which has all too often led to use of the cheaper alternatives of heroin and synthetic opioids,” DeWine said in a statement. “These drug manufacturers led prescribers to believe that opioids were not addictive, that addiction was an easy thing to overcome, or that addiction could actually be treated by taking even more opioids.”

The five manufacturers listed in the lawsuit, filed in the Ross County Court of Common Pleas, are Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and its subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Allergan.

The lawsuit was filed in Ross County since Southern Ohio was the area hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic, the press release states. A record of 3,050 people in Ohio died from drug overdose in 2015, The Associated Press reported. That figure is expected to rise significantly once the 2016 figures have been tallied, according to the AP.

The lawsuit alleges that the drug companies violated the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act and created a “public nuisance by disseminating false and misleading statements about the risks and benefits of opioids.”

Full Read – http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-attorney-general-sues-pharmaceutical-companies-opioid-epidemic/story?id=47750198

Drug dealers as murderers? Proposed Florida law targets sellers fueling overdose crisis

Cindy Dodds 24-year-old son, Kyle, was found dead of a lethal drug overdose on the streets of Overtown in Sept. 2016. Kyle had a mix of fentanyl, carfentanil, cocaine and heroin in his system. Cindy is hoping to raise awareness about opioid abuse, and that lawmakers strengthen the Florida law punishing dealers who give out fatal doses of the drugs. Emily Michot Miami Herald

After years of battling addiction, Kyle Dodds collapsed on an Overtown street corner on an early morning, victim of an illegal drug usually used for tranquilizing elephants.

For Miami homicide detectives, holding a drug dealer accountable for Dodds’ death has proven a familiarly futile task.

His cell phone disappeared from the scene, so investigators found no text messages or calls that might lead to the possible drug source. No witnesses surfaced to say they saw Dodds buying at a particular dope hole. Detectives didn’t even find a baggie of drugs on Dodds, which might offer a clue to a distinct seller.